I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanical split seals for sealing along a shaft and, more specifically, to a rotating seal ring component kit including the parts for a rotating seal ring component of a mechanical split seal and including the method of assembling those parts into a rotating seal ring component.
II. Background Information
Equipment such as pumps operate in an environment in which a rotating shaft must be sealed around its periphery to prevent fluids from entering into or exiting from a housing adjacent the shaft. In certain installations sealing elements in such equipment are relatively inaccessible. To avoid the effort and time required to completely disassemble such equipment, split seal rings may be used as the sealing elements which comprise a plurality of split elements surrounding a shaft rather than non-split elements. Replacement of the sealing elements may thus be accomplished without having to slide a solid seal ring off the shaft or disassemble other non-split to permit removal of a solid seal ring. The split seal rings are simply disassembled and removed from around the shaft.
Normally, two opposing split seal rings are provided. One is stationary (i.e., non-rotating) and the other rotates. Typically, each split seal ring comprises two halves extending 180 degrees to constitute a complete seal ring. However, it is possible to split a ring into three or more pieces. Accordingly, the terms "halves" or "sections" in this application as applied to seal rings or any other element of a mechanical split seal, are intended to reference at least two pieces and may, therefore, include three or more pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,401 issued to Sandgren (the "Sandgren patent") discloses a mechanical split seal comprising a pair of seal ring halves which are configured to fit around a shaft and rotate, and a pair of seal ring halves which are stationary. The assembly of parts which mounts the rotating seal ring halves to the shaft may be referred to as a rotating seal ring component of a mechanical split seal and the parts which make up the rotating seal ring component of a mechanical split seal may be referred to as a rotating seal ring component kit. A rotating seal ring component kit may be distributed independently to replace a rotating seal ring component or may be distributed as part of a mechanical split seal kit which includes parts not only for the rotating seal ring component but also for the remaining components of a mechanical split seal.
The rotating seal ring component disclosed in the Sandgren patent comprises a split seal ring made up of a pair of seal ring halves configured to fit around a shaft, and a split housing made up of a pair of housing halves configured to circumferentially surround the seal ring halves. An o-ring is interposed between the seal ring halves and the housing halves to support the seal ring in the housing.
Rotating seal ring components of this type do not employ any rigid clamping of the seal ring halves but rather rely upon pressure exerted through the o-ring and/or from fluid external to the seal ring halves to hold the seal ring halves together. Other examples of this type of rotating seal ring component may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,384 issued to Azibert and U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,425 issued to Wilkinson.
The non-rigidly clamped seal ring configurations represented by the Sandgren, Azibert, and Wilkinson patents are distinguished from prior art mechanical split seal arrangements in which there is rigid mechanical clamping employed to hold seal ring halves together. One example of a rigid mechanical clamping arrangement is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,200 issued to Tracy.
An object of the present invention is to provide a rotating seal ring component and related kit and method of assembly in which the seal ring halves are mechanically clamped together around a shaft by rigid, hard surface to hard surface contact.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention.